


The Weekend

by silly_mortal



Category: Life Goes On (TV)
Genre: Divorce, Exes, Extramarital Affairs, F/M, Fatherhood, Motherhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:13:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26676478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silly_mortal/pseuds/silly_mortal
Summary: Libby reflects on her relationship with Jerry, as they spend the weekend together.
Relationships: Libby Thacher/Jerry Berkson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	The Weekend

**Author's Note:**

> Drew is a jerk. Libby and Jerry belong together. We need a Life Goes On Reunion, but Patti LuPone probably hates Bill Smitrovich more than Libby hates Drew... Maybe.
> 
> My Jibby Timeline:
> 
> The Conference  
> A Series of Questions  
> The Baby  
> The Sitter  
> The Trip  
> The Weekend  
> The Announcement  
> The Conversation  
> The Memories  
> Halloween With The Berksons  
> The Patient  
> 

“Ahhhh!”

Libby’s head fell back against the tiles of the shower wall. Her eyes stayed closed and her mouth remained open, as she tried to recover from her orgasm. Lips brushed against her neck.

“I love you.” 

She repeated the sentiment, before letting out a small gasp when he pulled out of her.

“Don’t drop me,” she pleaded, as her legs shakily unwrapped themselves from around his waist and he slowly lowered her to the ground.

“I’d die before I’d let you get hurt.”

Libby opened her eyes and smiled up at him. She knew what Jerry said was the truth.

They shared a gentle kiss before they finished their shared shower. After exiting the shower stall, Jerry wordlessly helped Libby dry off, causing her to laugh when he took his time to dry every nook and cranny. He quickly dried himself and helped Libby into her bathrobe, before he took a large, fluffy towel and helped wrapped her hair in it. He took another towel and used it to gently pat her face dry, stopping every few seconds to place kiss after kiss on her lips.

“I’m gonna go down and start the coffee, ok, sweetie?” he finally said. “Then we can figure out what to do with the rest of our weekend.”

“Ok,” she smiled. “I’ll be down in a few minutes. I just want to dry my hair and get dressed.”

“See you then.”

He kissed her once more before turning to leave. As he did, she spotted the red, angry-looking scratches going down his back.

“Jerry, your back!”

He turned around, to look at her.

“I _scratched_ you - oh, honey, I’m so sorry! Let me put some antibiotic cream on them...”

Jerry smiled and leaned over to give her a final kiss, cupping her cheek.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll wear them like a badge of honor.”

Libby grinned at him, as he closed the door behind him.

She loved that man and relished every second she could spend with him. They hadn’t yet shared their relationship with her children, so they were relegated to any stolen moments they could manage and those moments were few and far between. Libby had nearly jumped for joy when Corky announced that he and Amanda would be going away with his in-laws until Sunday evening. With Paige in her own apartment, Becca off at college and Nicky with Drew for his scheduled weekend visitation, that left her and Jerry an entire weekend alone at the house together.

Jerry loved her. He made it a point to use every moment they were alone, and even some when they weren’t, to show her how much he did so. Their relationship was the office scandal, even though she and Drew had already filed for divorce months ago. She imagined that the office was abuzz because her coworkers had long speculated that she and Jerry were more than boss and employee. Of course, they had been more than that for years now, but they had done their very best at keeping that fact under wraps. Still, the other employees teased her, with their good natured ribbing about her ‘work-husband’, a nickname she was positive Jerry had planted in their heads, although he refused to admit it.

When she had become pregnant with Nicky, it was fairly early into their romance and they were still hyper-cautious about keeping everything a secret, so that no one would suspect the baby she was carrying was Jerry’s – not even Drew, thank God. That fact might have destroyed her entire family then and, while she would love to have left Drew and gone through her pregnancy with her baby’s actual father, it would have destroyed her children. The family was in turmoil at the time, about the restaurant, the new baby coming, Corky… always Corky. 

The timing just hadn’t been right.

The timing was right now. Well, as close to right as it could be. The kids probably didn’t think it was, but they probably never would have thought there was a right time for their parents to break up. In fact, they, quite possibly, had never seen it coming. Libby had dedicated her entire life to making sure her children felt safe and secure… and part of that involved hiding the problems in her marriage that had existed from it’s start. In their eyes, and in the eyes of everyone who knew them, Libby and Drew had the perfect marriage. They had been shocked when Drew declared that he was leaving Libby for another woman and that he wanted a divorce. Well, the kids had been shocked, but not Libby. She knew exactly how Drew behaved when he was seeing another woman. After all, she’d had over two decades of experience with a cheating husband to not immediately recognize the signs. She had also realized that, somehow, this relationship he has having was different than the ones in the past. 

It didn’t bother her. Frankly, she had prayed for years that he would leave her. Prayed that the day would come when she didn’t have drop everything when he snapped his fingers, so that she could appear to be the dutiful wife. Or use her college-trained acting skills to pretend she found his stupid comments to be funny or endearing. Or pretend that the smell of diner grease what followed him everywhere didn’t turn her stomach whenever he was within ten feet of her. Or have to fight the urge to cringe in revulsion when she had to comply with his sexual demands, so that he wouldn’t suspect that her heart belonged to another. She shuddered at the thought of how many times she had told him to do her from behind, simply so that she wouldn’t have to look at him... or smell him. 

Yes, she had prayed daily for him to leave her. Finally, he did.

Drew had left her for a waitress, one he had hired just a few months before. She was more than a dozen years younger than Libby, a tall, Nordic-looking blonde with big boobs and the body of a woman who had not given birth to three children. Libby wasn’t jealous of her in any way, but the fact that Drew’s preferences in women had always been exactly the opposite of her disturbed her. It was just another slap in the face.

\- 

Libby inspected her face, as she began applying make-up to it. Having just turned 43, she had the beginnings of fine lines forming at the edge of her big brown eyes. Crow’s feet. There were also a few tiny lines around her lips, but nothing very noticeable. Thank God, she had never been a smoker. 

Drew had always been critical of her – her large features overcrowding a diminutive face, her small breasts, her loud mouth, her dark coloring, her… Italianness. From the very beginning, he had always commented on how she was too Italian. She didn’t understand what _too_ Italian meant. She was Italian, that’s all. No more, no less. When she asked him to explain to her what it meant, he listed the way she looked, spoke, carried herself, thought, gestured and a host of other things that were simply _her_. So, she had done the only thing she could do and toned it down. Her Italianness, the thing that made her _her_. To keep the peace, Libby Giordano was put into a trunk, the same one she had buried other mementos of her past, and Libby Thacher was born.

\- 

Libby added a touch of color to her full lips, as the final touch of her made up face. Her ‘blow-job lips’, Drew called him. She had been both shocked and amused when, at the tender age of 19, he first said it to her. After 20+ years of him saying it every single time he saw her putting lipstick on, and somehow triggering his desire to have one then and there, she cringed whenever she heard it. Of course, now she only had to hear it in her head. Jerry would never call her lips something like that, even though she had used those lips on him countless times for exactly that act. He would call them luscious or sexy, but nothing so vulgar as ‘blow-job lips’. 

Jerry thought she was beautiful. He constantly told her so. He didn’t think that she was _too_ Italian. In fact, he loved how very Italian she was. Jerry was always making sweet comments about how he adored her features, her cooking, her gesturing, as well as how loud and expressive she was… especially in bed, but even when she was just telling him off about something he had done wrong. He wanted her to be proud of being Italian, just as he was proud of being Jewish.

Libby smiled to herself, as the thought of him being Jewish sparked a memory of when the two of them were looking through a baby name book and talking about what to name their child.

_“Jerry Berkson Jr.!” he had declared, as Libby laid with her bare back against his chest, while he rubbed her protruding belly._

_“If we call him that, Drew might start to suspect there’s something between us, Jer. He’s not the brightest crayon in the box, but even he might get the reference,” she teased. “Besides, the last name_ has _to be Thacher.”_

_“Ok, fine… Guido Sol Thacher. Italian for you, Jewish for me. Whaddya think?”_

_“I’m not naming my child Guido.”_

_“Why not? No one’s gonna mess with a kid named Guido, I promise you that. Especially if you put him in a little black suit every day and make him take his lunch in a briefcase. They’ll think he’s with The Mob.”_

_Libby shook her head, laughing._

_“Ok, no Guido…” Jerry conceded. “Then how about Guisseppe Shlomo Thacher?”_

_“Shlomo?” she stared at him, incredulously._

_“What? My great-grandfather’s name was Shlomo.”_

_“Jerry… Honey… I_ love _you. I love you more than life on earth… but, if you think I’m going to name a baby Shlomo-”_

_“Ok, ok,” he laughed. “I’m just kiddin’.”_

_He pressed a kiss to her neck._

_“Drew wants to call him Jake,” Libby said, quietly. “Jake Nicholas... He said he had to agree to Teresa as Becca’s middle name, for my mother, so he gets to name this one.”_

_“Who named Corky?”_

_“He did. He said it was a man’s right to name his firstborn son, so he called him Charles Andrew, after his father and himself. Becca was Rebecca, for his mother.”_

_“Well Libs, I think he’s named enough kids. This one should be yours to name. What do you like?”_

_“I actually like the name Nicholas a lot, but not Jake.”_

_“Then name him Nicholas. Make Drew think it’s his idea and you choose the middle name. What do you like for a middle name?”_

_“I was hoping to give him Giordano as a middle name.”_

_“Nicholas Giordano Thacher,” he said, slowly, sounding it out. “I like it.”_

_“He’ll never go for it. It’s too Italian.”_

_“Then_ make _him go for it. You’re the mother. You’re the one who’s going to go through the agony of delivering this baby – you should choose the name.”_

_Libby didn’t say anything._

_“Besides,” Jerry continued. “If my son can’t carry_ my _name, I really would love for him to carry_ yours _.”_

Libby smiled at the memory. He was a wonderful man, her Jerry… especially when it came to their son.

Jerry was thrilled at the prospect of spending more time with Nicky, since Drew wasn’t around to interfere. Ever since he was born, Libby had taken every opportunity to ensure that Jerry got to spend time with his child, but it was never enough. Even now, with Drew out of the picture, it still wasn’t enough. It wouldn’t be enough until the day Jerry could live together with Libby and Nicky in their own home. 

When Drew moved out, Libby had been forced to come back to work, to earn some kind of salary. Openly thrilled, Jerry had finally convinced her to bring Nicky to the office with her, rather than dropping him off for child care somewhere. 

“What’s the problem?” Jerry told her, when Libby had objected. “Some companies have an office dog. We’ll have an office _baby_.” 

Libby had insisted that it would appear unprofessional to clients and it would disrupt the entire office, but Jerry didn’t care what anyone thought about the arrangement. He was going to relish every single second he could spend with his son. 

Jerry had changed from the man Libby had known before. The old Jerry would go to all lengths to impress a client, even if that meant throwing Libby under the bus for the sake of business. The new Jerry could care less what his clients thought about having a crying, pooping baby in the office. He was happy to hold Nicky on his lap, right in the middle of a meeting. Of course, some clients had found it unprofessional and withdrew their campaigns from Berkson & Berkson, but Libby was relieved to find that Jerry had also attracted new, family-friendly companies, who found his fatherly behavior endearing. 

When she was pregnant with the baby, she was terrified that his lack of resemblance to Drew would give away her secret. Drew’s genes were strong, resulting in all three of his children resembling him. Becca shared some of her mother’s features, but those stark blue eyes were 100% Drew’s. Thankfully, Nicholas Giordano Thacher looked strikingly more like Libby than Jerry, so she didn’t have to worry so much. Still, she saw a lot of Jerry in him, the way he walked and that one piece of hair that always stood straight up. Every time Libby looked at her baby son, she fell in love with Jerry all over again.

Libby loved watching Jerry with his son. 

“Come here to Papa, Nicky,” Jerry would say, as soon as he would close the office door and they were alone. 

Nicky would toddle toward Jerry and would squeal with laughter as Jerry swooped him up and swung him around.

“Stop telling him that, _Uncle Jerry_. He’s going to pick it up one day and then what are we going to do?”

“I don’t see why he can’t call me that. We’re gettin’ married and I’ll be his father.”

“ _Step_ -father, as far as everyone else will know. And there is no way Drew is going to let his son call you Papa or Daddy or Pop or anything but Uncle Jerry. He’s already mad about the ‘Uncle’ part.”

“Hmph. We’ll see… Nicky, do you wanna do some paperwork with Papa- um, Uncle Jerry?”

-

Nicky was hardly more than a baby and seemed to be taking Libby and Drew’s separation well. He was far more attached to Libby than to Drew, so the change was not at all difficult for him. He hadn’t given any indication that he even noticed Drew wasn’t around. He simply wanted and needed his mother and no one else seemed to matter. The other Thacher children, however, were a different subject.

While Becca was upset to learn of the fact that Drew had moved out of the house and wanted to divorce her mother, she was now away at Brown University, living a completely different life and, truth be told, the change had hardly affected her. When she would call Libby every few days, she would rant and rave about how disgusting it is that her father would just up and abandon the family, especially for someone like Susan, who was stuck up and as dumb as a rock. Libby would listen, but never comment one way or the other. That would go on for just a few minutes, before Becca would spend the next 45 minutes asking for Libby’s advice about issues at school or with friends, but never once asking how anyone in the family was actually doing. True to form, Becca was still a bit selfish, just like her older sister.

Paige began distancing herself from Libby the day Drew had moved out. Though she had been in Paige’s life since she was six months old, and raising her full time since she was six years old, Libby and Paige had always had a hot and cold relationship. Though Paige was the daughter of her heart, she was not of her body and Paige never let her forget it, not one day out of the year. She still contacted Libby once in awhile, generally a call every couple of weeks, asking if she could have $40 or if Libby had any dinner made that she could pick up, because she didn’t feel like cooking. It seemed as if the second Drew had walked out the door, Libby had gone from being called ‘Mom’ to ‘Libby’ again. On some days she felt she wouldn’t be surprised if Paige suddenly began calling her ‘Elizabeth’ or ‘the former Mrs. Thacher’. 

Of all Libby’s children, Corky was the one who was taking it the hardest. He didn’t like change at all. As his rigidness had gotten somewhat better since having moved in with Amanda, Libby had hoped that he would take the separation better, but he hadn’t. He voiced his opinion about not wanting the divorce to take place every single day, all day long. It seemed to hit him hardest at mealtimes, when Corky, Amanda, Libby and Nicky would sit around the dinner table together. Corky would complain about how lonely it was without Drew, Becca and Paige. Libby had concluded that it was the multitude of changes that had taken place in the family that bothered Corky, rather than just Drew’s absence, but that didn’t make the situation any easier.

The one saving grace is that, over the past couple of years, Drew had taken to spending so much time at the restaurant that family time rarely included him anymore. Once the restaurant had reopened, he hadn’t been around for the weekends and, most recently, hadn’t even been around for meals… although that had more to do with his blonde waitress than the actual business, Libby thought. Of course, there was no reason for her to mention that to her son.

It was Corky’s reaction to the separation, and impending divorce, that had kept Libby from informing her children of her and Jerry’s relationship. She was hoping to wait until she could tell them all together, but that seemed unlikely until at least Thanksgiving, when Becca was home from school. Until then, she and Jerry did the best they could, with him sneaking over as soon as Corky and Amanda had gone up to bed and leaving first thing in the morning, before they came down from their apartment over the garage. 

Jerry was anxious for Libby to tell the kids, because he was adamant about them getting married as soon as possible. He had waited years for her and was anxious for the day to come that he could go to sleep next to her knowing she was now Elizabeth Berkson. 

He had already gotten in touch with a travel agent to talk about destinations to take a family for a small wedding. He had thrown out ideas about where they could go, but was really pushing for Las Vegas, which Libby did not find surprising at all.

_“Come on, Libs, Vegas would be great!” he had said. “We could do some gambling, take your parents to see Wayne Newton-”_

_“And the kids, Jerry? Paige is old enough to enjoy Las Vegas, but she isn’t going to want to hang out with us and her grandparents. And Corky and Amanda are old enough, but Becca isn’t – and what about Nicky? Las Vegas is no place for children!”_

_“Vegas has become more family friendly, Libs. They have a water park now and amusement parks everywhere. Or what if we get married in Vegas, spend two days there, and then drive the whole family down to California? You said the kids have never been to Disneyland, right? There you have it, we can take the kids to see the mouse!”_

_“Honey… We don’t even know how the kids are going to react to us getting married or my parents either, for that matter. We might want to just wait plan after we tell them, ok?”_

Jerry had eventually agreed with her, but he still continued visiting travel agents and researching places for their wedding, continually bringing her pamphlets and trying to take her wedding dress shopping. He was more anxious than even Libby was. She smirked, hoping he wouldn’t turn into a bridezilla.

The day Libby had told him about Drew leaving, he slid the diamond engagement ring he had bought long ago onto her finger, fell to one knee and begged her to marry him. Libby had, of course, tearfully agreed. She had been deeply in love with Jerry for years and hiding that love from everyone she knew had taken it’s toll on her. 

There were so many times she had wanted to tell Drew where to shove his arrogance and bad attitude, because she was in love with Jerry and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. She had wanted to explain to Corky why she needed to separate from his father and to tell him everything would be just fine, better even once he was out of their house... but then Corky would have an episode and it would remind her how vulnerable he truly was and would convince her again that she was forced to remain with Drew, for the sake of their son.

Drew didn’t feel that kind of responsibility to Corky though. The second that new waitress had given him an indication that she wanted to be with him on a more permanent basis, he packed his bags and walked away from 23 years of marriage, without even so much as a second glance at either Libby or their children. The bastard.

They were still in the process of trying to work out the details of their divorce. As of right now, things were relatively amicable, as long as everything was done through lawyers and they didn’t have to speak to each other for more than 30 seconds at any given time. 

Drew wanted 100% interest in the restaurant, in exchange for letting Libby have the house. The house was worth more money, but it still carried a mortgage of $60,000 on it at a high interest rate. Jerry had insisted that, once Libby and Drew were divorced, he would pay off the house as a wedding present for Libby and, of course, Drew was not aware of this offer or else he would have never offered to give up his interest in it. 

Not realizing that Libby actually preferred the house to the restaurant, Drew had tried to sell her on the idea by telling her that keeping the house made sense for her because it would be difficult for Corky and Nicky to have to move homes. Corky and Amanda could keep the apartment above the garage and Libby and Nicky could live in the main house, with Becca keeping her room for whenever she came home from college. He told her he knew it would be difficult to pay the mortgage on the pittance she got from Jerry, but that Drew would be paying child support for Nicky and maybe Corky and Amanda could pay rent from their Social Security checks... as if Libby would ever take money from her child. Especially her child with special needs, who would need every cent he got for the incredibly difficult road that was his life.

Jerry had wanted Libby to refuse child support for Nicky, so that Jerry himself could start supporting him. He had waited for the past two years, patiently playing the role of godfather, to truly be a father to his son. Libby knew she couldn’t do that. While she knew that Drew would jump at the opportunity to not have to pay Libby any money, he would be too suspicious as to why she didn’t want his money for her son… _their_ son. After all that Drew had put her through over the years, it would cause her no pain to tell him that Nicky was actually Jerry’s child, but she knew it would cause distress to her children and they were already going through enough as it was. 

Jerry finally conceded that it would be best for Libby to accept the child support from Drew but, in his truly generous spirit, suggested that she put every cent that Drew gave her into a trust for Corky. He knew, as well as she did, that Corky would one day need that money far more than Nicky would.

\- 

Her face finally made up, Libby pulled out the hair dryer from under the sink and plugged it in. She ran her fingers through her hair, as the heat from the appliance began drying it.

Her hair was finally starting to grow out to a decent length and that terrible perm she had gotten was starting to relax a bit. She knew Jerry preferred her hair longer, even though he had never once told her anything negative about her appearance. 

She remembered that, when Drew saw her it for the first time after she had hacked off her hair in a fit of hormonal rage, he patted her on her heavily pregnant belly and told her she was the biggest, and _oldest_ , baby bird he had ever seen. The bastard. She had promptly burst into tears and ran to the upstairs phone, to call Jerry. When she had cried to him about what she had done, Jerry told her that it was only hair and that her face was the kind that any haircut looked good on. The first time he saw her in person, the first time she had walked into the office with her freshly cut mullet, he cupped her face in hands and told her how thrilled he was that he could see her perfect face so clearly, without all that pesky hair distracting him. 

He was a dream, that man.

As she listened to the gentle hum of the hair dryer, while she ran her fingers through her dark locks, Libby found herself thinking back to the early days of their affair. 

They had fallen quickly and deeply in love that weekend in Cleveland, over three years ago. It was agony for them to return to their daily life, after having just had a taste of what it was like to wake up in each other’s arms, but they tried to find a way. Every day, they spent their lunch hour at Jerry’s apartment, talking, joking and making love. Jerry would send her on fictional errands in front of other employees, so that they could spend as much time as possible together, during the work week. 

Back in the beginning, she had struggled to find extra time to meet with him, outside of work. They had managed two more faux business trips over the years, where Jerry had taken Libby away for a few days, but those had been forced to come to an end once Nicky was born. They tried having her work _overtime_ , but it was difficult for her since there was always something that needed to be done at home. 

As she bent over, to dry the hair at the neckline, Libby suddenly flashed on a memory. In an attempt to free up some of her time back then, as well as remove some of the burden of housework from her, Jerry had boosted her pay an extra $300 per month, for the purpose of her hiring a cleaning service to come into her home once a week, for some of the deeper cleaning. 

Libby had managed to keep Jerry’s true reasoning a secret, by explaining to Drew that Jerry had been her ‘Secret Santa’ that year and that it was her Christmas gift. Of course, it had been lovable old Miller who had been her ‘Secret Santa’ that year and he gave her a beautiful drawing of Paige, Corky and Becca together, as well as a separate portrait of herself, as her Christmas gift. She had been unable to take the drawings home, for fear of Drew finding out about Jerry’s ‘gift’, so the portrait of the children was hung on the wall of her office and the portrait of Libby was hanging at Jerry’s apartment, in his bedroom.

When Drew found out about the monthly increase Libby had been given, he, of course, insisted that The Thachers, meaning Libby, didn’t need any help with cleaning, when they could use the money for the restaurant and everyone could just have to take on more housework. As expected, what actually ended up happening was that Libby got tired of yelling at everyone to do their chores and ended up doing everything herself, while Drew happily spent her monthly ‘Christmas’ money on things to improve the money pit that was The Glenbrook Grill. 

Libby was so embarrassed that she had allowed it to happen that she didn’t tell Jerry what had happened. She had managed to keep it secret for several months, until he dropped by the house unexpectedly one Sunday afternoon, citing a ‘work’ problem, but really just to catch a moment with Libby. 

When he had spotted his beloved on her hands and knees, heavily pregnant and scrubbing underneath the refrigerator, he had exploded. 

_“Libby, what are you doing?!” he had demanded, as he helped her up from the floor. “Why isn’t the housekeeper doing that?! Why are you cleaning?! On the ground like that, in your condition? You could fall and hurt the baby! What are you thinking, Libs?”_

_“Drew thought the money was better needed at the restaurant,” Libby said, using a voice that she hoped warned him that it wasn’t the time or place to discuss it._

_“But Libs- That money was for_ you. _To help_ you _.”_

 _“We decide what is best for_ our _family, Jerry,” Drew said, as he walked into the room and put his arm around Libby, possessively. “And Libby’s not doing anything she hasn’t done before. Pregnant women are strong, Jer… but I guess you wouldn’t know that, not having any kids of your own.”_

_Jerry had glared at Drew and Drew responded by smirking and reaching over to rub Libby’s stomach._

Libby shuddered, involuntarily.

Drew had always done things like when Jerry was around, acted like she was his own personal property. 

At the time, Jerry had shot Libby a look, before making a hasty retreat… and promptly contacting a cleaning service that he paid directly, from that moment on. Drew had been angry about the loss of the $300 per month, but Libby was ecstatic over the amount of time it freed up for her. It had been a godsend, especially after Nicky was born. 

But that was Jerry, always thinking about what was best for her and trying to make her life as easy and happy as possible.

As she turned off the hair dryer, Libby said a silent prayer, thanking God for bringing Jerry into her life.

She debated on whether to put on some clothes, before heading downstairs, but decided against it and settled for her bathrobe. Jerry would love the idea of knowing she wasn’t wearing a thing underneath. There were still a couple of rooms in the house that they hadn’t baptized and Jerry had been eyeing that high-backed chair in the living room. Maybe she could see if he was interested in another round before breakfast. 

Smiling, Libby left the bathroom and headed downstairs.

“Honey...” she called, as she reached the bottom of the stairs and headed toward the kitchen. “What do you feel like for breakfast?” 

She came to a sudden halt when she saw Drew standing in the kitchen, holding Nicky in his arms, clutching a pamphlet for a wedding chapel in his hand. 

“I don’t have time to eat anything,” he said. “I just came to bring Nick. What’s this?”

“Mama!” her son cried, holding his arms out to her.

Libby immediately scooped him out of Drew’s arms in a panic. Her eyes darted around.

Where the _hell_ was Jerry?

“You’re not allowed to just walk into my house,” she said. “You don’t live here anymore. And you’re supposed to have Nicky until tomorrow.”

“He was crying and he wanted his mama,” Drew explained.

“You mean you didn’t want to _deal_ with a crying baby,” she snapped. She then spoke softly to her son. “Nicky, what’s the matter, baby? Are you sick or did you just want Mama?”

“Look, Libby-” Drew started, irritated.

“Hey, Libs….!” 

From the way he called out, Jerry apparently thought Libby was still upstairs. 

Drew and Libby watched as Jerry pushed open the back door and let Arnold walk in, ahead of him. He walked in afterwards, clad only in his boxer shorts. Jerry was still completely unaware they were in the room.

When he turned around, to wipe his feet on the doormat, the scratch marks on his back were noticeable. Drew shot Libby a look, but she ignored him, as she attempted, with her mind, to will Jerry to keep his mouth shut. 

Of course, at the same time, she was smugly hoping Drew would take notice size of the bulge that was clearly visible in Jerry’s boxer shorts and that it would cause him to feel every bit as inferior as he was.

“Do you feel like going out for breakfast or do you wanna eat in?” Jerry yelled, still not noticing anyone was in the room, “... or do you wanna go back to bed and go out for lunch later? I, personally, feel like another round of _‘Hide the Salami’_ , if you- Whoa!”

He had looked up to see three people staring at him. Well, Libby and Nicky were staring. Drew was definitely glaring.

Nicky lifted his head from Libby’s shoulder and reached his arms out to Jerry.

“Papa.”


End file.
